(Top 3 athletes: (from left) Julie Tracy (Northeastern), Will Gerboth (Stevens), Gerald Rothenhoffer (MIT), Colin Kipping-Ruane (Boston), Katie Weller (Boston), and Amanda Nauman (Stevens))

The sun was shining, but it did little to break the chill that settled over the race site at the 2009 Lobsterman Triathlon on Saturday September 19. Athletes warmed up in and headed down to the frigid high 50-degree water for the start.

Amanda Nauman of Stevens Institute of Technology won the race for the women (2:32:10.9). She took the lead in the swim with the fastest female swim and followed it up with the fastest female bike. From there she never looked back, as she finished with the second-fastest run of the day. Katie Weller, 20, of Boston University finished second (2:51:50.9) followed by Julie Tracy, 23, of Northeastern University (2:52:06.1) just barely edged out by Weller. Nauman was the second finisher at Buckman and now became the leader of the point series leader.

A special mention for Kate Callahan, 21, of Syracuse University, who had two flats on the bike course and turned her anger into the speed. Her fastest female run (48:34), over 4 minutes to the second fastest time, however, was not enough to placing higher in the female field of the race, which has been increasingly becoming competitive.

The men’s race brought about a close competition. Colin Kipping-Ruane, 19, of Boston University won (2:17:54.0), despite having a lead-time in any of the stages of the race. His fourth place swim, second place bike and eighth place run were enough to propel him to victory. Kipping-Ruane became the new leader in the point competition. Gerald Rothenhofer, 29, from MIT used his first-place bike to seize the second place (2:21:48.2). Will Gerboth, 23, of Stevens finished third (2:22:47.8) with help from his third place bike ride.

Keisuke Inoue, 36, of Syracuse University, despite his fastest run time (39:55), missed the third place by .5 seconds to Gerboth.

Brendan Heller, 19, from Bryant University’s blasted through the swim (18:53), but crashed on the bike portion on the race and lost the lead. Heller toughed it out and finished the race. This was Bryant University’s first time joining the NECTC.

In the end, athletes enjoyed a perfect end-of-summer day in Maine as the race was completed and they feasted on lobster, clams, and beer from Gritty McDuff’s Freeport microbrewery.

A special thanks goes out to Tri-ME for a great race and hosting the NECTC for the third time. Despite the travel, a growing number of the NECTC athletes are calling Lobsterman, the most favorite race, because of its beautiful scenery, great organization, and post-race feast.

All the top finishers received plaques and prizes, provided by GU and PureMadness while the point leaders of the season and seized the leader jerseys provided by Champion System.

Now the stage is set for the upcoming NECTC Championship in Montauk, N.Y. Athletes keep training and get pumped!

The race results are available here.

The overall of standings of the NECTC point series can be found here.

The video from the swim start is posted to YouTube.

The pictures are posted (and more will follow) to Flickr.

(by Bryan Young, Syracuse University)
-Keisuke Inoue

Congratulations to Alice Henriques (age 29, time 1:24:33) and Griff Curtis (age 20, time 1:24:41) of Columbia University for their 1st Place finishes in this past weekend's race at the Buckman Triathlon in NJ. Not only did Henriques have the top swim time of the division (10:49) coming out of the water with just over 2 minutes to spare, but she also finished with the fastest overall race time outside the Collegiate division. Curtis took 1st out of the males also because of his swim time. Even though he didn’t have the 2nd fastest swim time, the fact the Keisuke Inoue and Russell Ericksen were dilly-dallying in the water (coming out almost last) he still took the cake because of his speedy run (18:51) that was the 2nd fastest run by 48 seconds. Henriques and Curtis are now the official point leaders on the 2009 NECTC. Congratulations!

Crossing the finish line as if holding hands, Keisuke Inoue (age 36) of Syracuse University took 2nd place for the men with a time of 1:25:24 while Russell Ericksen (age 26), of Columbia University, crossed the finish line at 1:25:29. Hmm…interesting. Well, it doesn’t surprise me as Ericksen came out of the swim 1 second behind Inoue, Inoue even gave him time to catch up by turning around playfully to chit-chat about the swim (pictures of their swim exit can be viewed on the Facebook group). Inoue’s kind gesture wasn’t enough to put Ericksen in 2nd place though because he spent a whopping 11 seconds too long in T1 to beat Inoue out. While the boys had identical bike times, actually the fastest of the race (47:54), it wasn’t enough to put the two of them above Curtis.

Henriques’ top finish created a margin of 9 minutes before the 2nd and 3rd place female finishers crossed the line. Amanda Nauman (age 20) from Stevens took 2nd with a time of 1:33:34. Columbia teammate of Henriques, Deena Elwan (age 23) took 3rd with a time of 1:38:26.

All the top finishers received plaques and prizes, provided by GU and PureMadness

Curtis and Henriques became our first point leaders of the season and seized the leader jerseys provided by Champion System.

An extended thank you to Joe Pantella and Greenbrook racing for hosting the 2nd race of the 2009 season. Joe's incorporation of the NECTC into the race made us feel welcomed and special. Our first place male and female finishers were awarded trophies, courtesy of Joe, in addition to the regular NECTC/USAT-NE plaques. Thank you Joe and all the volunteers who got up at the crack of dawn to make the Buckman Sprint an overall success!

Again, congratulations to not only the top finishers but to all the teams who came out to race. It was a wet weekend and the water looked pretty muddy but overall the turnout was great and everyone had a smile on their face.

The race results are available here
Pictures are available on Flickr.

- Rori Alter

-Keisuke Inoue

Filmed by Rori. Thanks Rori!
-Keisuke Inoue